Crownbet only offered bonus bet promotions at Randwick races on Saturday, a practice that is expected to become the norm.GETTY IMAGES
Corporate bookmakers are set to offer more promotions for punters at Sydney and NSW meetings after the recent race fields fee and point of consumption tax hikes, "which have left NSW the least-taxed racing product in the country," according to Chris Roots of THE AGE. Big bookmaking firms are "ready to abandon Victorian racing." Crownbet "only offered bonus bet promotions on Randwick races last Saturday, and that is set to become the norm." Racing Victoria "completely underestimated the effect of its race fields fee hike and reportedly failed to model it before going to market." Bookmakers have "run the numbers" on the '17 Victoria race meeting program and, of 517 meetings, 508 show an increase in product fees. Bookmakers are "privately considering scaling back advertising deals" with Racing Victoria’s media arm, racing.com, as a protest but will "promote the state where they are best advantaged by the tax system," NSW (THE AGE, 6/24).
